Lack of pace hits BMC in Swachh race

TNN | Updated: Jan 14, 2019, 9:38 IST

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BHUBANESWAR: There is a chance that the city could fare poorly in the ongoing Swachh Survekshan IV, thanks to the dilly-dallying of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) that seems to be struggling to popularise the cleanliness survey among the citizens here. The fourth edition of the national-level cleanliness survey has directed urban local bodies to get more citizens to take part in the process, apart from improving cleanliness parameters by introducing source segregation, stopping open defecation and making cities garbage-free, among others. However, neither of the activities seems to be working out, as was reflected in the sanitation plan of the state capital where it has been clearly mentioned that though door-to-door collection of waste was being carried out in all the 67 wards, there was no provision for source or general segregation of waste. Besides, officials have failed to execute the ambitious project of setting up a waste-to-energy plant at its designated dumping yard in Bhuasuni. The planned compost plant and plastic waste treatment plant at the temporary transit station near Sainik School are also to see the light of day. Another parameter where the civic body is lagging behind is feeding of data in the Swachh Survekshan portal related to the Swachh City plan, status of municipal solid waste management and transportation facilities, waste processing and disposal practice and the status of public and community toilets among others. “We have oriented our officials to undertake activities that would help improve the rank of the city. We are also taking action against the agencies that are not performing up to expectation. The data feeding will be expedited soon. We have improved the sanitation scenario of the city and it will reflect in the result,” mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said. What comes as a worry for the civic body is the irregular and untimely garbage collection by private sanitary agencies appointed to maintain cleanliness in the city. The local corporators have time and again raised the issue at several council meetings over the past months.

In the last council meet, one of the corporators raised the issue and said Ramky, a sanitary agency handling cleanliness of nearly 15 municipal wards, is neither collecting garbage nor putting waste bins or conducting door-to-door collection of waste properly. The corporator demanded that the licence of the agency be cancelled. It must be mentioned that the city had ranked 245th among 4000-odd cities in the Swachh Survekshan 2018. It ranked 94th among 500 cities in the second edition of the survey in 2017 and got the 24th rank among 73 participating cities in the first-ever survey in 2016.